Crud… we missed it again… missed what, you ask? The best snorkeling event in the world. The World Bog Snorkeling Championship!

For many years (and you can read more on our blog since we covered the numerous years) the small town, Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales sponsored the annual Bog Snorkeling Championships. What is Bog Snorkeling? Grab your snorkel equipment and lets jump in the bog.

Wikipedia description of a bog is: A bog or mire is a wetland type that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—usually mosses, but also lichens in Arctic climates.

Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic, either from acidic ground water, or where water is derived entirely from precipitation, when they are termed ombrotrophic (rain-fed). Water flowing out of bogs has a characteristic brown color, from dissolved peat tannins. Bogs are very sensitive habitats, of high importance for biodiversity.

This year on August 31st, over over 200 people participated in this outdoor snorkeling sport. All you need is your snorkel equipment, snorkeling mask, fins and your snorkel. Costumes are optional.

Because of the increase of participants, they used two bogs this year. Through the hard rains, the snorkelers had to snorkel through the mud two lengths of 60 yards each. The person with the best time was declared the winner. But you had to keep your head in the water and could not use swim strokes, only kicks with the aid of your snorkel fins (or flippers as our friends over the pond calls them).

The event will be held again next year so if this is on your bucket list make plans now.  Or try the other Bog Snorkeling events which include Bog Snorkeling Triathlon and World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkeling Championships.

If the World Bog Championship isn’t challenging enough for you, the folks of Llanwrtyd Wells also have another annual event which is the World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkeling Championship. The trench for this event is 45 yards long and 5 feet deep and contestants must ride specially modified bicycles in which the normally hollow tubing of the frame is filled with lead. The tires of the bicycle are also filled with water and the riders themselves even don scuba diving weight belts to help keep them from being too buoyant. The Bog Aqua Cyclists wear a masks and snorkels to keep from ingesting the water from the bog (I sure hope they know about dry snorkels).

For the true athlete, there is always the Bog Snorkeling Triathlon which involves a 12 mile run followed by a 2 length snorkel of the bog and finishing up with a 25 mile mountain cycle. So the next time you are feeling bogged down by life, you might want to head over to Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales and participate in one or more of the annual events, whether it is the bog snorkeling, the mountain bike bog snorkel or the bog snorkel triathlon, you are sure to have a (pun intended) Wale of a time.

Are you bogged down at home or at work? Well you can take that bogged down feeling and put it to good use in the world of snorkeling. At least that is what 170 people did in Wales on the outskirts of the self proclaimed smallest town in Britain. Llanwrtyd Wells has a population of just barely 600, whose annual events include not only a Saturnalia Roman Festival held in January but also a World Bog Snorkeling Championship held in August. The event involves snorkeling 60 yards in a trench cut into a privately owned bog. Participants don various costumes that would be the envy of any Monty Python sketch along with mask, fins and snorkel to compete for the fastest time to traverse the trench.

The video below had me in stitches as I watched one guy dressed in an over sized Sumo wrestler outfit make his attempt. His outfit was not quite suited for the event as it barely fit into the trench width-wise and his speed was slowed by the obvious drag that was inherent to the suit. Drag wasn’t a problem for the guys who donned house dresses, wigs and sported black handbags as part of their Bog Snorkeling regalia. The winner of the 2008 World Bog Snorkeling Championship was 23 year old Connor Murphy from Ireland who walked away with the $100.00 prize winnings.